Tentatively named the Coal Avenue Theatre, the nearly completed red brick structure is the first in CNM’s 50-year history. Past venues have ranged from the CNM nurse’s lecture hall or a double-wide trailer to a series of Vortex Theatre rentals.

Thanks to 2011 voter approval of an $800,000 bond issue, workers have transformed what had been a document storage warehouse into a black-box theater capable of serving an audience of 65. The space also marks the debut of the college’s first-ever associate of arts degree in theater.

Students can study acting, theater appreciation, acting for the camera, improvisation, voice and movement and beginning screenwriting. The new structure will support everyone from explorers merely dabbling in acting to those interested in transferring to a university to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

The green room is still all black at CNM’s new black-box theater. Joe Damour, theater instructor, is reflected in the mirror. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal)

“It’s creating artistic intimacy,” Erickson said. “Because of film and TV, people are used to close-ups. Actors don’t have to be miked. You want the walls to recede, you want to create a world of light and sound.”

An adjacent “green room” provides the actors with make-up mirrors and storage space for costumes and props. Backdrops lie stacked on the theater floor, awaiting hanging to create a baseball diamond shape for the first production.

“We’re going to go from contemporary to Shakespeare and back,” Erickson said. “We want to give students the full experience. We may visit ancient Greece.”